the assassination of john f. kennedy sunday at 7:30 p.m. eastern and pacific. >>> to middle east experts now whether the use of drops is effective to come pat al-qaeda, both featured pammists at the brookings institution looking at the rides of the terror group in yemen. this is about an hour and a half. >>ed good -- >> good morning and welcome. i'm the research director here at brookings for middle east policy. i'm delightedded that you all came out on such a cold and miserable day in washington. that shows your fortitude and the importance of what we'll discuss today. one of the developments i would say of the last decade, perhaps a little longer is the emergence of yemen from a country that was seen as relatively obscure, and from a washington point of view, at least, something that was not a priority to becoming a country that has gone from, i'd say, the edge of the radar screen to the center. unfortunately, as yemen moved, knowledge of yes , ma'am men,ñr -- yemen, among the policy community and broadest middle east community in genera